New DB coach brings energy, experience with T2

Perhaps the most underrated change the Lions will make this offseason is hiring Jimmy Lake as the defensive backs coach, Chrissie Wywrot wrote on the Lions' website. Lake, who came from Tampa Bay (where he worked with Joe Barry), brings an intimate knowledge of the Tampa 2 system. Even more important, Barry said, is Lake's energy – "He's a ball of fire." The entire article is worth the read for some great quotes from Lake on what he thinks it takes to improve Detroit's secondary, which has been roundly recognized as one of the worst units on the team. In fact, Lake thinks that he can achieve substantial improvements with the players the Lions have right now.

Detroitlions.com, February 12:
"A lot of time it's technique and that's what we're really going to focus on in the offseason," said Lake. "That's what I'm going to preach to the guys - it's all going to be about body movement and getting their technique right.

"Because when we work on body movement from March all the way through until July, when the season starts, I don't care what coverage we play - their technique is just going to take over."
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"You don't have to have No. 1 draft picks all the way across the board," said Lake. "If you have 11 guys that have good talent and will buy into this system, run to the football, have extreme high effort and really care about the system - then you'll be more successful than if you had a whole bunch of supreme athletes that didn't buy into the system and didn't play with high effort on Sundays."
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"There are a lot of technical issues that need to be taught and that I see that need to be corrected."